Annette Nance-Holt speaks at a press conference in Chicago on July 7 after filing suit against three suburbs for not adequately monitoring gun stores. (Saiyna Bashir/Sun-Times Media via AP)

(Newser)
–
Two mothers from Chicago's South Side are suing three nearby suburbs and making an unusual civil-rights argument in the fight against gun violence. Their lawsuit filed July 7 claims the governments of Lyons, Lincolnwood, and Riverdale don't do enough to stop the "flood" of guns into Chicago that perpetuates violence in poor, black neighborhoods, the Washington Post reports. Pam Bosley and Annette Nance-Holt know of it first-hand: Both lost teenage sons—one was shot while unloading music equipment at a church, the other while shielding a friend on the bus. The mothers, who say their civil rights are being violated, demand employee background checks and better security and training for the suburbs' gun shops.

The lawsuit, citing a 2014 police report, says three gun shops in those towns—plus a fourth in nearby Gary, Indiana—were the source of nearly 20% of firearms found at Chicago crime scenes between 2009 and 2013, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Police have reportedly recovered a gun sold at one particular Riverdale shop every day for the past 10 years, on average. Chicago's superintendent of police, whose city has seen homicides jump 20% this year, says fewer guns coming into the city would decrease violence and agrees suburban shops need to be more strict. But, opponents, including the NRA, say the suit has little merit and is a way for the city to force its gun laws on neighboring jurisdictions.

Morons, you are drowning in your fetid culture. Assimilate, drop the hyphen, become Americans....or not.

Leo Carey

Aug 7, 2015 10:06 AM CDT

Let's assume all the guns magically disappear - does that really mean these thugs will finally stay in school and become upstanding citizens? Or will they just find another weapon and keep on - keeping on?

Ezekiel 25:17

Aug 6, 2015 8:10 PM CDT

Crap, I hate this when it happens. I have to get on Rham's side on this one. I mean the guy has spent years since leaving the WH as proxy president just locking up all of the baddies of the greater Chicagoland. He's clamped down on gun rights and did all he could to slow the flow of weapons and put hardened felons in prison for very long sentences. But that has left the young bangers in charge and that was the reason for the massive increase in gun deaths. So in defense of Rham, he was not to blame for the banger deaths. That is totally on HHS which built the large swaths of urban squaller that breeds the problem from embryo to corpse.